Kinkaku had transformed into a Tailed Beast form, and six tails had grown out behind him.
This scene made Darui break out in cold sweat.
But as the captain of the First Division, he couldn't back down.
Just as Darui calmed his mind and prepared to fight to the death, the Reanimated ninja that had snatched the red gourd suddenly flash-stepped behind Kinkaku.
"Shinra Tensei"
The expected scene of repulsion didn't happen.
Kinkaku, already in his Tailed Beast form, slowly turned his head. Seeing this enemy suddenly appear, he grabbed the opponent's head with one claw.
With a bit of force, Kinkaku crushed the Reanimated ninja's skull into pieces.
"Shua shua~"
Two more figures appeared.
Darui saw it clearly. All four Reanimated ninjas in front of him — including the one Kinkaku had just crushed — had Rinnegan eyes.
"Where the hell are all these Rinnegan Reanimated ninja coming from?"
Darui was dumbfounded.
He didn't understand why there were so many Reanimated ninjas with the Rinnegan. Just in front of him, there were five already.
And on the other battlefields, there were probably more of these Rinnegan Reanimated ninja.
There's no way his battlefield was the only special one, right?
"It's just… this Rinnegan feels kinda off."
"Whether it's that so-called Banshō Ten'in or Shinra Tensei, they all feel way too weak. Compared to the Rinnegan that the Akatsuki leader had, these are nothing."
"Forget it, why am I even overthinking this? As long as I confirm they're not enemies, it's fine."
Darui sighed.
Kinkaku's Tailed Beast transformation was proving to be a huge problem.
If things went badly, he might die here.
"If only these Reanimated ninjas' Rinnegan had the power of the Akatsuki leader's Rinnegan."
After that short complaint, Darui braced himself for a desperate fight.
Just then, a huge shadow appeared beneath Kinkaku.
Darui looked up. A giant toad was falling from the sky.
"Crushing Stall Technique!"
Boom—!
With a loud crash, Kinkaku was slammed to the ground by the giant toad.
But Kinkaku was still in Tailed Beast mode with six tails. The giant toad only held him down for two seconds before Kinkaku flipped it over from beneath.
"Gamakō, you can go back now."
After releasing the summoning beast, Jiraiya stood in front of Kinkaku, arms folded, completely casual.
"You're… Jiraiya, one of the Legendary Sannin?"
"Yeah, that's me."
Normally, Jiraiya would've struck a dramatic pose.
But this was a battlefield. He wasn't in the mood to mess around.
"Watch out!"
Darui shouted.
Because Kinkaku was launching an attack at Jiraiya.
"It's fine."
Jiraiya didn't move at all. He even took a second to brush his flowing hair.
Just as Kinkaku was about to strike Jiraiya, the Third Tsunade appeared beside Kinkaku at the perfect moment.
She threw a monstrous punch at him and shouted, "Go to hell!"
Kinkaku couldn't react in time and was sent flying by Tsunade's monstrous strength, crashing hard into a cliff.
Taking advantage of the moment, five Reanimated ninjas with Rinnegan quickly moved in toward Kinkaku, seemingly planning to work together to extract the Tailed Beast chakra from him.
Unfortunately, Kinkaku didn't give them the chance. With a simple flick of his tail, he destroyed all five of the Rinnegan Reanimated ninjas.
This must be Orochimaru's doing, right?
Tsunade came over to Jiraiya's side, ignoring Darui who had tried to greet her. She rubbed her forehead, looking somewhat speechless.
Remember before we came here, Orochimaru told Tsunade from this side to prepare twenty death row inmates? This must be the masterpiece he made from them.
Honestly, I never thought the Rinnegan could be used this way, but compared to Pain's version, this is like a kid playing compared to an adult.
Can't be helped—the quality of the materials is too poor.
Darui looked over at yet another Rinnegan Reanimated ninja that had somehow appeared out of nowhere. At this point, he was feeling numb.
Whether it was these Reanimated ninjas, or the appearance of Jiraiya and the Fifth Hokage Tsunade on the battlefield, everything felt bizarre to Darui.
Not to mention anything else—just talk about the Fifth Hokage for a second.
As Hokage, why wasn't Tsunade staying at Allied HQ like the Raikage? Why did she come here to back him up?
He hadn't received any orders from the rear either.
The hell is even going on here?
Save the nonsense for after we get back. Don't forget why we're here.
Tsunade waved her hand, stopping Jiraiya who seemed ready to chat more with Orochimaru.
By the way, do you need me to buy you time so you can enter Sage Mode?
At that, Jiraiya smirked and said boldly, "With you two helping me, I don't need to use Sage Mode just to deal with this piece of trash."
Suit yourself.
Tsunade waved her hand, and Jiraiya launched a Great Fireball straight at Kinkaku.
Of course, that didn't really hurt Kinkaku.
At this point, Kinkaku had not only transformed using Tailed Beast power, but he was also in Reanimated ninja form.
To defeat him, sealing techniques were the only option.
Still, the Great Fireball worked well to block Kinkaku's line of sight.
"Heaven Kick!"
As expected of Tsunade.
With a single heavy kick, she smashed straight through Kinkaku's body.
But it was still useless.
That kind of injury—Kinkaku recovered almost instantly.
What Kinkaku didn't notice, and didn't realize, was that in the brief time it took him to heal, Orochimaru had already controlled six Reanimated ninjas to secretly absorb a tiny portion of the Nine-Tails chakra from him.
"Hehe, Jiraiya, Tsunade—keep it up."
At Allied Headquarters, Orochimaru smiled in satisfaction as he controlled the Reanimated ninja to absorb Kinkaku's Nine-Tails chakra.
The reason he sent those six Reanimated ninjas to Darui's battlefield was exactly to leech off some Nine-Tails chakra for free.
The Ōtsutsuki enemies could appear in the ninja world at any moment.
For world peace, he had to do everything possible to strengthen their side.
If the Second Hokage could come up with the mini Ten Tails plan, then so could he.
Though his version was a bit different.
In this timeline, for some reason, Reanimation Jutsu couldn't summon Hashirama Senju.
So the only candidate left to become the Ten Tails Jinchūriki was the still-recovering Uchiha Madara.
"What a shame there isn't enough time. Otherwise, maybe I could've gathered all nine Tailed Beasts' chakra here."
By his estimate, they had less than thirty minutes before they had to leave this place.
"Speaking of which, should I try to get Ginkaku's Nine-Tails chakra too?"
First Unit Battlefield.
Darui had already released the Samui siblings from the Red Gourd.
Looking at Kinkaku being beaten bloody by Jiraiya and Tsunade, Samui turned to Darui with a confused face.
"Don't look at me. I've got no idea what's going on either."
With a small smile, Darui added, "But thanks to them, this battlefield is probably ours."
*********
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